Tattoo Series: Your Pictures Make Me Wet Event

Tattoo Series
Chris Stillo, Daniel Castells
“Your Pictures Make Me Wet”

Opening Thursday 18 April, 7pm
exhibition running until April 27

In 2015, Christoph Srb and me (Reinhold Zisser) founded an artist run space in Seidlgasse 14, 1030 Vienna. The name of the space □□□□□■ (also written LLLLLL) was created from the light boxes which are attached to the exterior facade.
In 2018 i started an artistic project in which i used our artist run space as material for a conceptual artwork, by showing off the room at Parallelvienna, tranfering these light boxes as a central element of a room installation to the fair. The following offer was made there: Each artist, each curator, who has the symbol, the name of the space □□□□□■ tattooed, will receive a solo exhibition in 2019. Altogether, 23 people were tattooed during the six days of the fair.
The second phase of the action, the realization of the exhibitions now already began in the Space at Seidlgasse in Wien 1030 with the first show of Alban Muja this March. Now we kindly invite you to the opening of our 2nd exhibition of the Tattoo Series “Your Pictures Make Me Wet” by Chris Stillo and Daniel Castells

The resulting shows investigate the network of positions and their mutual inscriptions that emerged at the fair, presenting them itself and thus making these abstract relationships visible. Opposite to the body of this group exhibition created by the presence of artists who got themself tattooed to be part of, is the body of the □□□□□■ exhibition space where the whole action takes part.
While at the beginning of the project the artist run space □□□□□■ was the vehicle for the observations of the dependencies and abysses of the art institution / market / artist into an exhibition context, the now running exhibition series show that the □□□□□■ space acted as an artistic instrument. The reflection and presentation of the relationships between artists and institution has been a central element of my work for many years and therefore also became a central element of the □□□□□■ space. Therein I understand curatorial action and the system of art institution as a material to generate artistic work. You can slip like a hermit crab into more and more new forms and Ieave then leave again. This parasitic strategy is also evident in this exhibition series. But it also becomes clear that this parasitic relationship is a mutual one in which the resulting inscriptions are permanent and interact.

Chris Stillo and Daniel Castells about their upcoming show:
Your Pictures Make Me Wet
We make it a necessity to keep track of our lives. We keep digital memories to prove that we’ve lived. To prove we were here. To prove that our lives mattered.
We are living through a mirror that shows us whatever we choose to remember. It weakens our conscious reality by portraying a hazy version of our feelings floating around in a parallel universe.
But we are not water. We are not made of unforgettable molecules.
We forget. Remember that.

The Artist’s Thoughts:
There’s something about us I never really got to understand. You cover me whole.
You are flat.
My fingers on your skin. Too close to me.
I saw you passing down the street the other day. I saw you having a coffee with that certain smile on your face.
I kept walking.
You probably can’t remember. I can’t touch you. You are another interference in my past.
I have you in my hand.
Maybe I took the wrong picture at the wrong time.